his hand playfully across her mouth. "Let the little chap see one thing at a time. I b'lieve already he's seen enough to talk about for days. Just give him a mugful of milk and a few cookies to keep him from starving till dinner time." Little Jim enjoyed the milk and cookies, for all he had eaten that morning at home was a stale roll smeared with bacon grease.

"My, what good milk! When my mother buys milk she puts water in it to make it go further. It tastes different from this. Say, Aunt Merindy, I've been prayin' just awful that the Fresh-Airs will send my mother to the country. Do you s'pose-after I've been here a week-you'd let me go home and have my mother come here in my place? The Fresh-Air lady said no, when I asked her, but p'rhaps you'll be willin', if I work for you, and don't pick none o' your flowers."

flowers you want. You wait a while, Haven't you a father, or

"Bless your heart, sonny! Pick all the The Lord sends 'em to us to be enjoyed. and I'll think about your ma. brothers and sisters?"

Little Jim shook his head. "Pa died, and all the rest. They had tuber-tuber-clossis, and my mother is sick too. But she works. Say, Aunt Merindy, if you'll let her come, she'll help you with the work.

"Never mind now, deary. Eat some more cookies, and while I get the vegetables ready for dinner you run around and see the chickens and ducks and pigs. To-morrow you can help me shell pease and so on."

And as the little boy limped away on his crutch the good woman watched him with tearful eyes. "Bless the child! I intend to help the little fellow have a happy time if I ever did a good thing in my life!

And Josh and I

will talk over sendin' for his mother. The Lord keep us from bein' selfish, in the midst of all the good things he gives us to enjoy!"

The happy days passed rapidly by, and little Jim, whose cheeks were filling out, and taking on a faint tinge of color, often remarked that "heaven must be something like Ridgewood farm." His first letter to his mother was brief, but to the point. "Deer Ma," it said, "have plenty to eat, and am geten fat. I have good times every minnit. I am prayen that you can be in fresh air two."

One evening, as the sun was setting, little Jim came up the path singing in his feeble, pipe voice, "There is sunlight all the way." Uncle Josh had just returned from town, and had tied old Billy to the gate.

There was nobody to be seen in the yard, but little Jim knew that there was a mugful of milk and supper waiting for him. Then a clean little bed in a corner of the east room upstairs, a long night's rest, and another day of happi

ness.

With a long sigh of contentment, the boy limped up the steps to the kitchen door, calling out, "My what jolly times! There is sunlight all the way!"

Aunt Merinda did not answer as usual. As little Jim looked up, a familiar figure stood in the doorway. With a wild cry of joy, the boy threw down his crutch, and clasped his mother around the waist.

"Yes, I'm here, darling boy!" she said, kissing his freckled face over and over again. "And p'rhaps we two are to stay all summer!"

Little Jim stood up straight, clinging to her hand, and raising his eyes in the sky he said simply: "Thank you, our Father which art in heaven."-Children's Tribune.

Civil Service

TRUANT OFFICER'S DUTIES.

1. State the requirements of the Compulsory Education Law of Illinois. (a) Where does it differ with that of Massachusetts? (b) Where does it differ with that of New York. 2. How many children of Compulsory scholarage are there in Chicago?

3. What is the connection between the conviction of truants and the Juvenile Court? (a) How would you define "indifferent Parent"? (b) A Parent contributing to delinquency?

4. What is the difference between a Truant Officer and a Probation Officer?

5. What and where is the Parental School of Chicago? (a) Under what law was it authorized? (b) What training do children receive there? (c) From what grades do most of the children come who are sent to the Parental School? 6. What is the difference between a truant and a delinquent? (a) Between a truant and a dependent?

7. In case a truant becomes a delinquent what would be your method of procedure?

8. What would you do with a child who you discovered had been absent from school 30 or 40 days?

9. If you truant on the street during school hours what would be your method of procedure? (a) How would your method of procedure differ if the child had not been enrolled in any school?

10. What would you do in the case of a truant child whose lack of interest in school was due to insufficient nutrition? (a) Or who was ashamed to go to school because of lack of proper clothing?

14

(a) By what branch of government is it maintained?. (b) Give a typical case of truancy.

(c) The relation of the probation officer to this department.

6. What would you do if you found a homeless child in your district? What would you do in case it was afflicted with a contagious disease?

7. What would you recommend to the court in case of a boy of twelve who had thrown a snowball which had struck an irate citizen who had him arrested and brought before a police court? What would you recommend to the court in the case of a child who had been arrested for loitering on the railroad right-of-way?

8. What would you do if you found a girl of twelve whose father had deserted the family, whose mother was obliged to work away from home all day, who was found begging money in a saloon at two o'clock Monday afternoon?

(a) What action would you take in this case?
(b) What laws had been violated?

9. How would you proceed to investigate if you heard a rumor in your district of a boy of fifteen who had for two weeks stolen money from his employer, had spent it chiefly in taking a girl of fourteen to a five-cent theater and was suspected of improper relations with her? You further hear that a girl of twelve is a close companion of this girl of fourteen?

10. What are a few of the institutions in which dependent children are received? In which delinquent children are received?

Note.-Applicants must not sign their names to the examination papers or give any marks of identification. PENMANSHIP:

Have you had experience as a probation officer or any similar position? If so, give term of service.

Have you had any experience as a teacher in a public or private school — in kindergarten, social settlement, charitable or similar institution or organization?

Have you ever had any experience either as an employe or in connection with the management of a public institution? Are you now, or have you been employed during the last five years; if so, in what line of work?

Have you had any other experience which, in your opinion, would tend to qualify you for the position of probation officer?

What is your age? Married or single? If married, how many children living under the age of fourteen?

(1) Have you had experience as a probation officer? If (b) In what so, state (a) During what periods of time. court or courts. (c) How many persons were placed under your probationary care: men, women, boys, girls, total. (d) Describe briefly your methods of probationary oversight over such persons. (e) State such facts as you can concerning the results of your probationary care of such persons as indicated by the disposition made of them at the expiration of the term of probation.

(2) Have you had experience in other work for the reformation of delinquent juveniles or adults? If so, state fully the nature of such work, the periods of time you were so engaged and the methods pursued by you.

(3) Have you had experience as a teacher in a public or private school? If so, state fully the nature and duration of such experience.

(4) Have you had experience as an officer or employee of any public or private institution? If so, state fully its nature and duration.

(5) State fully the nature and duration of any other experience which you have had and which in your opinion would be of value to you in work as a probation officer.

II. Personal Qualifications.

(1) Personal impressions, to be judged by examiners meeting each candidate separately and questioning him in the presence of a stenographer, each examiner noting his impressions of the following particulars: 1. Physical condition, 2. Manners, 3. Sympathetic attitude, 4. General intelligence, 5. Patience, 6. Persistence, 7. Personal force.

III. Duties of Position.

(1) State briefly the present statutory provisions in the State of New York in relation to probation and probation officers.

(2) What is meant by the probation system as a method of dealing with offenders?

(3) Describe in detail the duties of a probation officer in relation to: (a) Boys between the ages of 12 and 16. (b) Young men between the ages of 16 and 21. (c) Men over 21 years of age.

(4) Sketch the historical development of the care of delinquent children in the State of New York.

(5) What are the present alternatives in the treatment of offenders to the use of the probation system as to: (a) Juvenile offenders. (b) Adult offenders?

(6) What should be the relations between a probation officer for juveniles and (a) compulsory attendance officers; (b) factory inspectors; (c) any other public agencies?

(7) Outline what you would consider a desirable plan for the duties of a probation officer: (a) In relation to offenders before their trial. (b) In court.

(8) What in your opinion are the chief direct and contributory causes of juvenile delinquency in the city of Yonkers?

(9) What advantages should the city of Yonkers derive from the establishment and operations of a juvenile court, and from the development of an adequate probation system for juvenile offenders, and for adults?

(10) What would be your methods in dealing with the parents of children placed on a probation under your care? (11) Describe the agencies of a charitable, reformatory, educational or kindred character in the city of Yonkers with which you would expect to co-operate, and the advantages which in your opinion your work would derive from such co-operation.

(12) Write a report addressed to the judge of the juvenile court concerning a boy 14 years of age who had been under your probationary oversight for a period of one month after having been found guilty of stealing lead pipe from the cellar of an unoccupied house, assuming any facts concerning the boy's behavior, home influences, etc, which you may desire.

(13) What course would you advise for the probationary oversight of children under the following circumstances:

(a) A girl, 12 years of age, whose mother is dead and who lives with her older sisters and her father, who has been brought before the court, charged with being wilfully disobedient to her older sisters and with frequenting bad company in the streets, but who has not been guilty of any immoral act.

(b) A boy of 10 who is a confirmed truant, who is backward in his studies and who seems to be especially fond of music and to have some ability in that direction.

(c) A boy of 14 who is addicted to attendance at cheap theatres, whose home surroundings are good, who has snatched a lady's pocketbook in the street in order to secure money for admission to the theatre, whose record otherwise is good.

(d) A girl of 14 who is an occasional truant, whose father is intemperate and somewhat indifferent to his duties, and whose mother is sharp tempered and keeps the child home from school from time to time to assist her in her household duties.

(e) A boy of 14 who is two grades behind his class in school, who is generally considered dull, who is considered by his parents to be listless and disobedient and with a tendency to be incorrigible, and as to whom a physical examination indicates the presence of adenoid growths in the throat and of considerable eye difficulty of remediable character.

EXCELLENT PROBATION LAWS. SUCCESS WITH JUVENILES AND ADULTS.

By Judge Curtis D. Wilbur.

After some gradual changes of treating of the convicted felon, we have at last made a sudden jump into an entirely new field, that of juvenile and adult probation.

The plan was first tried with the boys and the girls and it was found to work so well that adult probation laws were

readily passed, and after five years of trial of the juvenile court law and four years of trial of the adult probation law in this county, I can say without hesitation that the plan is an unqualified success. That it introduces new problems into the administration of criminal law goes without saying. That these problems are perplexing and require thought and plan and careful handling is self evident. A man cannot raise a family in a moment, no matter how great and wise and powerful he may be. It is a gradual process of upbuilding and of growth. So it is, too, that in the administration of the probation system there will not be marvelous changes in the individual instantaneously, but there must be a growth toward better things. I hold that unless we adopt a plan of capital punishment for crime, or life imprisonment for crime, that it is self evident that our efforts should be devoted to the reformation of the person convicted of crime, to the end that when he is released to the public he shall not be dangerous to society. I do not mean by this to say that a man should not be punished, should not be deprived of liberty as a punishment, but I do mean to say that this punishment should be so ordered that his condition, mental, moral and physical, shall be bettered. That the present system of incarcerating men for long periods of time where they must work without pay and are not expected really to do a man's work, teaches idleness and shiftlessness rather than thrift and industry, and fits the prisoner rather for the rock pile or the refuse heap than for active and intelligent citizenship, seems to me to be self evident. After dealing with over two thousand children in our own juvenile court and after more than two hundred and fifty adults have been released on probation in this county, I feel that I can speak with some degree of assurance with reference to these two plans.

The difference between the probation plan and the old plan is the difference between throwing a child into the garbage heap, and trying to clean him up and make a man of him. With reference to adult probation, many changes have already resulted in the actual administration of the law, and many more pleas of guilty are received, for when a man feels that he has a possibility of a probationary sentence, another chance, he is more willing to confess his guilt. I look to see the probation system result in constitutional amendments and statutory amendments thereunder, in regard to the trial of cases. I think that when men feel that a convicted criminal is to have a chance if he is worthy of it, that if the judge feels that he is entitled to be released on probation, he will have another chance, it will result in more convictions and that it will also result in a change in the jury system, whereby a unanimous verdict will be unnecessary. Let us not forget in this connection that even one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ was a traitor and that the present system of requiring a unanimous verdict of twelve men, each of whom must be convinced beyond all reasonable doubt, is a system invented at a time when the convicted criminal, even though the offense might be only grand larceny, was removed directly from the court to the scaffold and there hung. Our criminal practice should be altered so far as possible as to make truth profitable rather than unprofitable, and to make perjury decidedly unprofitable; and so that our lawyers who are engaged in the defense of criminals as a business should not become professional liars as well as lawyers. I say this with due thought, for there is a tremendous temptation on the part of a lawyer who is defending a criminal to make assertions in his argument to the jury which are not borne out by the truth, assertions of his belief in the innocence of his client, assertions that the evidence demonstrates or proves certain things when such statements are false.

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